Germany and its immigrants

Modern Germany has had a complicated relationship with its immigrants. On the one hand, they're needed to fuel the economy. They work in basically every facet of German industry and are an engine for its growth. On the other hand, they dilute the German identity that Germany has fought so many wars to defend. After having shed so much blood in the cause, losing that identity to the modern phenomenon of immigration gets under people's skin.

The view of immigrants is on full display at the moment due to the elections going on in Hessen where the incumbent, who is struggling, has started talking about the criminal immigrant youth in Germany to boost his ratings.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,527694,00.html
Some of the statistics in the article surprise even me:
Fully 59.4 percent of Germans either "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement that too many foreigners live in Germany -- an increase of 6 percent over 2002. In addition, 35.3 percent of those polled agreed that foreigners should be sent home should there be a shortage of jobs in Germany, up from 27.7 percent in 2002.

Living on the Bodensee, far from the big cities, far from the center of Germany, stories like this show the disconnect I have from what's going on in this country. At the company I work for, about ten percent of the empoyees are foreign born but many of the wifes (only one woman in the engineering firm and she's the secretary) are also foreign born. Its common to hear turkish, russian, or spanish being spoken if you're out and about, and dark skinned people, while not common, are not an oddity. With immigrants so ever present, its surprising that anti-immigrant sentiment is so high.

The surprising thing about the German view of foreigners is that its not based on am insular view of themselves. Germans are in general very inquisitive about the outside world and are very adaptive to foreign ideas. Non-Germans are even displayed promimently n tv, magazines and ads (which to me is striking as it means like dark skin can sell products) What they are not adaptive to is just foriegners in their midst.

Germans want foreigners to integrate, whatever that means. That is their most common complaint. People will talk at length about what this means: Respect for laws and democracy, equality of the sexes, knowledge of German (ok, ful disclosure: after having lived here eight years, I'm still struggling in this department) and Germany's customs, yadda yadda yadda. A lot of this talk is complete bullshit in my opinion. I think the Germans would have no problems with immigrants if the immigrants looked like them. That's the integration they want. Don't have dark skin. Don't look turkish or east suropean. Don't dress like a muslim. Don't have Chinese features. If you can satisfy that, you can piss on the German constitution and no one will give a shit

The battle cry a while back 'Kinder statt Inder' (kids instead of Indians) strikes bluntly at this point. Its obvious that you can tell an Indian apart from a German. No amount of love for democracy can get around that fact. No amount of clothes from C&A will disguise that. Germans look a certain way and any significant change to that is very problematic to a swath of the German population.

Beyond that most basic problem with looks, integration also means buying into what Germans find important. They want immigrants to vote like they do, to think like they do. Germans want their concerns, enviromentalism, nationalized health care, workers rights, generally liberal views to be continued. its not simply that you accept democracy but use democracy to make sure Germany does not significantly change. Accept equality of the sexes but leave it up to the Germans to determine exactly what the means. 'Don't tell us what we are. We'll tell you what you are' is basically what is boils down to.

The knee jerk reaction is to find the current situation a continuation of the German persecution of the Jews. I don't think its that simple. The historical situation is different today and the German mindset has been starkly shaped by the events following World War II. Arguments over immigration and national identity are taking place in many western countries, including the US, and Germany is another one of the fronts for this fight. The difference here in Germany is just the context from which the problem rises, the history of the Germany mostly.

While my macro views of Germans attitides towwards immigrants are quite pessimistic, my micro views are the opposite. I've never had a problem with anyone I've met here (occasinally there are neo-nazi marches and cashiers at shops who are obviously rascist but never with anyone I've personally met). I have close relationships to many German friends and never heard anything rascist from them. I actually love living in Germany and would set down roots here if it were not for the fact that my whole family lives in the States. I hope Germany's attitudes towards immigrants changes but I fear it will not in the short term.